With host parents and host sister

Two friends, Vera and Maike

Youth For Understanding Newsletter May 2009

Dear YFU Friends and Members,

Seasons change, time flies by and it

doesn’t slow down for our students

and volunteers either. They have

been here for ten months now and

have made quite a few experiences

so far along the way. In this newslet-

ter three inbound students wrote

about what they did in their school

holidays, two Dutch volunteers talk

about their stay and work here and

the regional director of Gauteng

writes about her YFU training in

Mexico.

While the students were busy having

a good time we were working hard

on finding new host families, promo-

tion, getting the last applications of

this year’s young South Africans

going abroad and looking for new

places where volunteers could work.

I’ve been here for a month now,

staying and working with Rynette,

the regional director of Gauteng. It’s

been a nice and very rewarding time

as work is fun and I’ve seen already

quite a bit of South Africa and its

cultures. The happy and laid back

people, the good food with its great

diversity, the red earth, the beautiful

animals and of course the sun make

South Africa sometimes just seems

like paradise compared to my home

city Hamburg, which I love a lot but

most of the times the people just

move stressed and hurried with

unpleasant looks on their faces

through the streets on a normal grey

and rainy day. Jogging in the morn-

ing, feeling the sun, getting greeted

by people with smiles on their faces

is just a much nicer start in the day.

Now, please enjoy the newsletter.

Warm regards, Rob (YFU - Intern, Gauteng)

Maike Geerlink, the Netherlands

Vera Tylzanovski, the Netherlands

We (Vera and Maike) are two volun-

teers who work in Bloemfontein.

Maike works in a Youth and Childca-

recenter and Vera works in an

Aidshouse. We have been asked to

write an article for the YFU newslet-

ter, so we thought the best thing is

to start at the beginning.

We both did not want to go to uni-

versity directly after finishing high

school, so we looked around on the

Internet and we found YFU. A couple

of months and a lot of paperwork

later, we arrived in South Africa.

Now, after seven months of doing

voluntary work we have had a lot of

experiences, good and bad.

To give a better look in our lives, we

give a short example of how a nor-

mal day looks like.

Vera starts at 7.00 am. She gives

medication or washes patients and

floors or makes the breakfast. Every

day is different in general, the one

day she goes with patients to the

hospital, the other she spends time

with the patients. Sometimes she

makes lunch at around 13.00. In the

evening she helps with putting the

Volunteering in Bloemfontein

In this issue:

Volunteering in Bloemfontein p 1 Holidays at the East Coast p 2 Mpumalanga / Kruger Park Trip p 3 Ke a boya - 2nd time in Seshego p 4 YFU Training in Mexico p 4 Upcoming Events p 4

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Annika enjoying the nice view

patients to bed after giving medi-

cation. Sometimes she washes the

dishes. She usually goes to sleep

between 22.00 and 23.00.

Maike´s work starts at 8.30. Till 12.00

she takes care of children who are

not accepted in schools (because of

behavior or other problems). From

13.00 she eats with the children and

helps with homework until 16.00.

The kids can go outside and play till

17.00, some days Maike supervises

them. The kids bath and eat dinner

at 18.30 and go to sleep at 19.30. In

her free time Maike organises

projects for the children, like a valen-

tine ball or a beauty contest. Maike’s

best experience was Christmas Eve.

Anne, Alice (two other volunteers in

the center) and she dressed up as

Santa Clause and elves. They went to

the houses in the center and give the

children little gifts. The children were

very happy; it was really nice to see.

Vera’s best experience was when she

and the other volunteer at the

Aidshouse had to take care of 13

children all by themselves for a

couple of days. It was a great expe-

rience because she never thought

she could do that but at the end of

the day everybody was still alive and

the house was still standing.

We hope you have a better image

now about volunteering South-

Africa.

Annika Marklein, Germany

Our tour of the April holidays started

with a whole lot of driving, because

we are living in Tzaneen (Limpopo

Province) and the main place we

wanted to visit was in the Eastern

Cape.

After driving for two days next to the

Drakensberg of Lesotho, we finally

arrived at coffee bay, which is a nice

and quiet bay. The next morning,

after spending some lovely time at

the beach, we drove further on to

Hole in the Wall. We climbed up a

hill next to that huge wall in the sea

having a hole made by water running

through it. It is really a beautiful

place and I can just advise anybody

to go there as soon as possible be-

fore anybody will start building

houses there.

The next day we visited Kei River

Mouth and decided to expand our

trip going to Tsitsikama Nature Re-

serve and the Addo Elephant Park.

The Elephant Park was a very big

success. I had visited the Kruger

National Park before enjoying it very

much and seeing a lot of animals, but

the only one I still wanted to see was

a lion. Before going to this Game

Reserve, my host father said he

didn’t think there were any lions at

Addo, but a lot of elephants from

close. Our visit in Addo started a bit

boring not seeing any animals at all.

But finally we got to a water hole

seeing a big herd of elephants. After

that we were actually happy. But

then, (Surprise!) we first saw a lion-

ess laying around, then one drinking

water next to the elephants at that

water hole and then, at 5 o’clock we

saw two lioness trying to catch a

Kudu!! That was a big thing for me.

We were waiting for the lioness to

attack the Kudu for a while, so that

our necks got stiff because of it

The next day we went to Tsitsikama

Nature Reserve. That is a beautiful

place next to the sea and was a nice

last visit.

Unfortunately we had to drive for a

long time back. But we went around

Lesotho so that we could visit the

Golden Gate that consists of beauti-

ful mountains.

The whole trip was a wonderful ex-

perience for me and I am very glad

that I got the chance to go there.

Holidays at the East Coast

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Trip to Mpumalanga and the Kruger Park

Markus with vulture

Markus, Tamas, Anna and Felix

Anna Vorhees, USA

Early Wednesday morning on April 8

I was picked up at my house for the

Mpumalanga / Kruger Park tour.

There were eleven people in total

who went. This included Werner, our

organizer and fearless leader, his

father and his two sons (Marko and

Tian) plus seven exchange students

including Tamas, Pierre, Victor, Mar-

kus, Felix, Lily and myself, Anna. We

were all excited to see each other

again and had a long drive ahead of

us to catch up.

Our first activity for the day was a

brief shopping trip in Pilgram’s Rest.

Afterwards we went to a beautiful

waterfall that was surrounded by

dense woods. We were able to go to

a few more flea markets where we

were able to find many nice souve-

nirs. That night we stayed in a board-

ing house in Sabie. Werner made

spaghetti for us, Pierre showed us a

trick and we watched a movie on

Markus’ laptop.

The second day we went to God’s

Window. It is an amazing mountain

view surrounded by a rainforest. We

went to the Pinnicle which is a natu-

ral stone formation that somehow

ended up as a very large rectangle

standing on its side.

We spent the next few hours at an

animal rehabilitation center. We

were given a brief presentation and

a tour of the center. We saw hyenas,

lions, leopards, wild dogs and much

more. We were lucky because we

were quickly able to pet a cheetah,

two baby rhinos and to enter a cage

filled with huge vultures. Markus was

even able to have one come sit on

his arm while he fed it! It was very

nice, even though most of the vul-

tures were really ugly.

That night we set up two large tents

and camped out in Hazy View. A few

of us forgot sleeping bags so it was a

good thing Werner took a couple

extra.

April 10th

– Tamas’ Sweet 16! Happy

Birthday! Unfortunately for him he

wasn’t able to sleep in. We woke up

early to get a head start on our day

in Kruger Park. I was very excited to

go because it was my first time

there. We all pretended to be true

born South Africans so we were able

to enter quicker and cheaper. Then

the hunt was on!

We drove most of the day and al-

though we did not see any lions or

leopards, we saw the rest of the big

five, elephants, buffalos and rhinos.

We also saw baboons, hippos, gi-

raffes, crocodiles, monkeys, Zazoo

birds (I don’t know their real name

only that it is the bird from Lion King)

and many deer.

We left the park to go back to the

tents. We did a bit of swimming and

made dinner. I learned how to make

pap! There was lot of photo exchang-

ing to make sure everyone had all

the pictures because the next day

was our last day. We had a long drive

back. On the way home we stopped

at the Sudwala Caves. They were

nice and had some funny formations

including one formation that looked

like King Kong.

Unfortunately not everyone was

feeling well on the ride back. The car

was mostly quiet, especially com-

pared to the other days. One by one

we had to say our goodbyes and

drop people off. We were sad to go

but we had a lot of fun. I would just

like to say thank you to everyone

who made it a great trip.

YFU is looking for families who would like to open their hearts and homes to one of our students. If you would like to host one of our students or know someone in your community who would, please contact us.

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Ke a boya

Miriam and Mahlatse

YFU Training in Mexico

YFU representatives from all over the world

Miriam Hecht, Germany

Ke a boya - I’ll be back. That’s what I

promised my sister Mahlatse the day

we left Seshego at the end of Febru-

ary.

And I kept my promise. Friday, April

3, I climbed the bus to Polokwane.

After a long ride I finally arrived at

the familiar Shell garage. Seeing

Mahlatse coming around the corner,

greeting me with “Hey Keamogelse

(my African name), hope you had a

nice trip” completed the feeling of

having come home.

I had an awesome time meeting our

friends every day, living the African

township way I got to love so much.

As usual for the township you cannot

walk around without meeting some-

one you know. Chego and Prince,

classmates at Mohlakanerg High

School, were indeed quite surprised

to see the “legowa” (white person)

having come back.

The most surprising event for me

was another one though. A friend of

my sister’s cousin drove us to a party

close by. I soon found out that he

has worked in Frankfurt, Germany.

My home city, Darmstadt, happens

to be not so far from there so I de-

cided to ask him whether he knows

the place. As coincidence wants it he

has been there, visited our great

shopping mall and he is going back to

Germany in September!

Unfortunately the 1.5 weeks went by

far too quick even though I have to

say I was somehow looking forward

to seeing my “old friends” back in

Pretoria.

With a last Spepahlo in my bag I

climbed the bus again but this time

seeing the Shell garage getting

smaller and smaller in the distance.

I might not ever again walk down the

familiar street, pass the cell C house,

the friend’s house, the butchery I

used to buy Spepahlo every second

day; I might not ever see Mahlatse

again nor anyone else who made my

stay in Seshego special. But I can

claim to have made experiences that

are irreplaceable and now I am not

talking about the Mopani worm that

I chewed on for five minutes before I

could swallow it!

Rynette Scholtz, South Africa

After a long flight I finally arrived in

Mexico, where the journey went on

to Cuernavaca. Cuernavaca is a busy

city with very friendly people. On

Thursday night we had the opening

of our training workshop and I met

friendly and open YFU representa-

tives from all over the world, which

made me feel right at home. The

training went on for three days with

very interesting topics. I already

knew back then that it will help me

with my work for YFU. On Saturday

night YFU Mexico sur-

prised us with a Dinner in

Xochicalco, an archeo-

logical site outside of

Cuernavaca, what a

wonderful experience!

Sunday, March 29, trai-

ning was over and it was

time to say goodbye to

my new friends, and I started on a

little private tour with Sonja and

Lena from Germany and Ornella and

Peter from Switzerland to a silver

mining town called Taxco. Then we

had to say goodbye to our German

friends, too and travelled to Puebla,

the city of Angels, with beautiful old

buildings and Cathedrals and even

volcanoes.

We also visited Mexico City, the Sun

and Moon pyramids and we went on

a bus ride through the entire city

seeing old buildings and statues and

more friendly people. On Friday I say

good-bye to Ornella and Peter and

return to Puebla where I stayed with

an YFU volunteer and her son and

we had a wonderful time together,

visiting flea markets and museums.

Then it was time to say goodbye to

Mexico and the people. Thank you to

everybody who made this possible, I

will never forget it!

Upcoming YFU Events Re-Entry Orientation June 5-6

Family Day and Farewell June 6

Students Leave June 25 - 30

New Students Arrival July 6

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